Free Republic

... People have forked over up to $250 bucks for sneakers named after NBA stars. But now, if you want the latest LeBrons, which are set to debut this fall, you're going to have to lay down $315 to get them.

The Chicago Teachers Union made headlines a few months ago when it was revealed that the union was demanding a 30 percent raise in its new contract proposal. Such an enormous raise – regardless of the supposed justification – would be unthinkable in a district with a $665 million budget deficit and a 9.8 percent unemployment rate. The school board countered with an offer of a two percent raise, which would still be a burden on the district’s overstretched budget. As a result, both the CTU and Chicago Public Schools requested an “independent” fact finder to look at both sides’...

More relevant today than ever before- you listening, self-assured Obammunist boneheads? Phil Donahue Show (1979): Donahue:  When you see around the globe the maldistribution of wealth, the desperate plight of millions of people in underdeveloped countries, when you see so few haves and so many have-nots, when you see the greed and the concentration of power... did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism? And whether greed is a good idea to run on? Friedman: Well first of all, is there some society you know that doesn't run on 'greed'? Do you think Russia doesn't run on 'greed'? Do...

U.S. states and localities have more than $2 trillion of unfunded pension liabilities, Moody's Investors Service said on Monday, citing data on plans offered by 8,500 local governments and over 14,000 individual entities. The total liabilities for fiscal 2010 were more than three times the amount reported by local governments. "Pension liabilities are widely acknowledged to be understated," Moody's Managing Director Timothy Blake said. Most state fiscal years end on June 30. The rising cost of public pensions has strained finances for cities around the country. Stockton, California, which last week became the biggest U.S. city to file for Chapter...

"Truly, the behaviour of some of Britain’s banks has been beyond contempt. Firstly, through greed and monumental misjudgment, they plunged Britain into a recession that could last a decade and which threatens our children’s futures."

NEW YORK, May 30, 2012 (MeshPress) — Milberg LLP announces that class action lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) FB -2.29% common stock pursuant to the Company’s May 18, 2012 initial public offering (the “IPO”). Actions were also filed in the Northern District of California. The complaints charge Facebook, certain of its officers and directors, and underwriters of the IPO with violations of the Securities Act of 1933. The actions allege that the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued with the IPO were...

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, California lawmakers sought a way to channel the patriotic fervour and use it to help victims' families and law enforcement. Their answer: specialty memorial license plates emblazoned with the words, 'We Will Never Forget.' Part of the money raised through the sale of the plates was to fund scholarships for the children of California residents who perished in the attacks, while the majority - 85 per cent - was to help fund anti-terrorism efforts. But an Associated Press review of the $15 million collected since lawmakers approved the 'California Memorial Scholarship Program' shows only a...

Sean Hannity exposed much about B. Hussein Obama lately taken from Obama's own words from his Book: "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance". He said many outlandish things; talked about his drug and alcohol abuse, hanging out with "Marxist Professors", etc. But, IMO, the most damning thing that he wrote and said was this statement: "White Folk's Greed Runs a World In Need" "White Folk's Greed....." That should go viral in every newspaper, cable news network, as well as GOP and Super PAC ads during this 2012 Presidential Election. Where is the outrage? Is anyone, besides...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, has called for a hearing on the $2-billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that "policies are going to be derived out of what’s happened." Corker, who was a key participant in the debate over the 2010 financial reform law, said it was important for policymakers to get the facts about the situation and whether pending regulations would have prevented it.

Grumbling grows on left over slow-going in Wall Street crisis investigationsBy Peter Schroeder - 04/26/12 07:30 AM ET Roughly four years after the financial crisis hit, some on the left are wondering when, or even if, the Obama administration plans to pursue criminal prosecutions of the Wall Street figures that played a major role in the meltdown. Top White House officials, including the president himself, have vowed the slow, steady work of investigations is underway, and that those who broke the law on Wall Street will ultimately be held accountable. But despite those promises, there is scant public proof of...

With Congress deadlocked, President Obama is increasingly resorting to executive orders and recess appointments to achieve his objectives.

Lionsgate has already booked a November 2013 release date for the wildly-anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games,Catching Fire. But might the studio have trouble meeting this deadline? The question arises because negotiations aren't going smoothly with director Gary Ross, who executives want to return based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews for the first installment of the franchise. Ross earned $3 million for The Hunger Games - plus back-end profits - and, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, is angling for a major sequel raise. All other major players have signed on for both Catching Fire and Mockingjay -from Jennifer Lawrence to...

The mother of slain teen Trayvon Martin wants to trademark her son's name in the slogans, "I am Trayvon" and "Justice for Trayvon," according to two petitions filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Federal documents show Sybrina Fulton, the teen's mother, is the owner of the trademark petitions, which were filed online March 21 by her attorneys Kimra Major-Morris and Natalie Jackson of the Women's Trial Group. The trademarks, if granted, would cover digital materials, including DVDs, CDs and audio recordings featuring Trayvon. Each trademark application costs $325.

The mother of slain Trayvon Martin recently filed a trademark to protect the rights to his name as an attempt to control- and collect funds from- the masses of merchandise being produced in support of their cause. It was revealed today that Sabrina Fulton, the boy’s mother, filed two petitions last week to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to specifically gain the rights to the phrases ‘I Am Trayvon’ and ‘Justice For Trayvon’, both of which have been frequently used by protesters across the country. The trademark application shows that she is specifically looking for control of the use...

How much would you pay to watch a replay of a great play, or skip a bunch of television commercials? And should you have to? Those are a couple of the questions raised by a newly surfaced Microsoft patent application. It’s called “Control-based Content Pricing,” and the basic idea is dynamic pricing of video content, based on the preferences of the user at any given moment — essentially setting different prices for different functions of the TV remote. Here’s an excerpt from the filing. For example, if a user initiates a navigation control input to advance past (e.g., skip over)...

Most people do not realize but there is a Commodity Empire that is run by New York’s biggest banks/Investment Banks that are in a continued struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the power of their commodity trading empires. They control the storage warehouses, storage tanks, and silos constituting hard assets worth multi-billions of dollars. But it also gives them inside information regarding inventories and the ability to manipulate the prices by moving inventory back and forth to unreported warehouses or to London. ----------------------- Page 2----------------------- At the center of this power struggle has been the issue...

The rich really are different from the rest of us, scientists have found — they are more apt to commit unethical acts because they are more motivated by greed. People driving expensive cars were more likely than other motorists to cut off drivers and pedestrians at a four-way-stop intersection in the San Francisco Bay Area, UC Berkeley researchers observed. Those findings led to a series of experiments that revealed that people of higher socioeconomic status were also more likely to cheat to win a prize, take candy from children and say they would pocket extra change handed to them in...

{excerpt} Money, get away Elsewhere on the big money beat, I’m still trying to figure out how we got to a place where the top two GOP candidates are giving each other a hard time for making so much dough. It was Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” who famously said, “Greed, for a lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit Greed . . . will . . . save that . . . malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.” A quarter-century later, a story...

Last week's column started off asking: "What human motivation gets the most wonderful things done?" The answer is that human greed is what gets wonderful things done. I wasn't talking about fraud, theft, dishonesty, special privileges from government or other forms of despicable behavior. I was talking about people trying to get as much as they can for themselves. Think about greed and racial discrimination. In 1947, when the Brooklyn Dodgers hired Jackie Robinson, why did racial discrimination by major league teams begin to drop like a hot potato? It wasn't feelings of guilt by white owners, affirmative action or...

KEENE, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program. "We can't wait 10 years," even though "everybody wants to," Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary. Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.